Exchange
by x0-plasticapple-0x
Summary: Degrassi students go on an exchange program to Australia. They come to Melbourne, and stay with a variety of families in the area. Not really set at any particular time. First degrassi fic so be nice! x0x0
1. Exchange?

**Chapter One**

_Degrassi _

Class had only started 10 minutes ago, and Paige Michael-Chuck was already bored out her brains. With no Hazel to keep her company and pass notes with, Paige was lost. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been without a close friend in class. Sure, she had Marco and Spinner and Craig and Ash in class, but they were all too wrapped up in their own little worlds, catching up on missed homework, which Paige had finished the night before. Instead, the girl sat and fixed her make-up in her little pocket mirror that she took everywhere with her, while she waited for the others to finish.

Half an hour later, class was finished and Paige couldn't be happier, the day had finished and that meant she got to go home, no work tonight! Paige fiddled at her locker for a few moments, before heading over to Marco's, as he was going back to her house to work on their M.I. project together. As she reached Marco's locker though, she noticed Ellie was hanging around.

"Lets go Marco" Paige said sweetly, steering him away from the redhead.

"Oh, you're going with _her_" Ellie said, pouting. "You promised Marco. This exchange thing is important to me…"

Marco looked between the two girls.

"El, I know its important, but this projects due tomorrow and we haven't even started…" Marco started to say. Ellie interrupted him though.

"Well, maybe you should have started earlier, instead of hoping that Dylan would be around every time you go over, and then getting upset when he's not and then leaving before you get any work done."

"Come on El. You know I have to do this project…" Marco said.

"Fine then" Ellie said. "I'm coming with yous. Paige can help organise this trip too. After you've finished this project." Ellie grabbed Marco's arm and hooked hers into it, beginning to walk away.

Paige looked confused, but went along anyway. Maybe Ellie would keep her mouth shut for 5 minutes and they could get the project done, and then she could leave them alone to do whatever it was Ellie wanted to do.

Ellie had positioned herself on Paige's bed the moment they had arrived at her house, and showed no signs of moving anytime soon, so Marco and Paige took the floor and worked on their plan for the project, organizing their ideas and such. Every few minutes Ellie would go to butt in, but she stopped after the third time when Paige nearly hit her.

Slowly but surely the project was done, and when it was finally finished, Ellie gave a heavy sigh.

"Finally!" she said to both Marco and Paige. To Ellie and Marco's amazement, Paige agreed.

"I know what you mean. That was ridiculous Marco. Next time no excuses… We get it done in class."

Ellie and Marco shook their heads at one another as Paige went to the bathroom. Ellie then pulled out all the things she had organised for their exchange trip.

"Right-o" Ellie began as Paige returned to the room. "I've put it to Mr. Raditch and he thinks it's a great idea, and the other school has agreed and all, so it's full steam ahead" Ellie said to Marco.

"Great" Marco said, flipping through a pile of Ellie's papers.

"What's full steam ahead?" Paige asked. Ellie looked at Marco and then back to Paige.

"Oh, we're organising an exchange trip to Australia for Degrassi students. Open to our year, and the year below us as well. I'm bringing it up at home group tomorrow morning. And so yeah, we go and live with an Australian family and go to their school and their classes and all that." Ellie said.

"Wow" Paige said quietly. She could tell that Ellie was proud of the work she had put into this. "I wanna help."

"What?" Marco said, looking up from one of the papers, before glancing at Ellie.

"I want to help. Is that so hard to believe that I might actually be interested in something like this?"

Marco shook his head.

"I didn't think so. So, can I be in?" Paige asked, turning to Ellie.

"Uhh…" Ellie said, kind of uncertain. She knew that Paige could be a nice girl when she wanted to, but she also knew that she could be a bit, unmanageable, if you got onto her bad side. "Sure…"

"Thanks. So what do you want me to do?" Paige asked.

Ellie's morning broadcast during home group had gone well, and Ellie and Marco were waiting in the M.I. classroom for anybody who was interested in the trip to show up. Paige wandered in, Ellie had already given her all the information she needed the night before, so she wondered why she was here. Paige pulled up a chair and dragged it closer to Ellie and Marco, who were at the front of the room.

"Um… Paige…" Marco began to say, before the door opened, and Manny, Emma, JT and Toby wandered in.

"Hey Paige, Marco, Ellie" JT said, while Emma and Toby smiled and waved hello. Manny simply just sat down.

"Oh… Hey Ellie, Marco. How are you?" Manny said, ignoring Paige. Paige scowled at the girl, but quickly got over it.

The group talked amongst themselves as they waited for anyone else to show up. A few moments later, Craig came running in.

"Hey... sorry I'm late guys" he said, waving to Ellie, Paige and Marco, before taking a seat. A few more randoms joined them in the next few minutes, and just as Ellie was about to start talking, Jay and Alex wandered in, more interested in themselves than what they were walking in on.

"Oops… Is this where we want to be Alex? Around Greenpeace?" Jay said to Alex, using an old, old nickname for Emma, who simply ignored Jay and asked Ellie "Are we gonna get started?"

"Uh... Yes" Ellie said, who was more than a little surprised that Alex and Jay had shown up. "Right. Well. Basically we've organised an exchange trip to Melbourne, Australia. Marco's gonna hand out some information sheets for you and your parents, and then we'll cover any questions you've got."

Marco handed out the sheets Ellie mentioned to everyone, before he sat back down next to Ellie. They watched everyone quickly read their sheet, everyone except Jay, who had folded it up and put it in his pocket. It was obvious that he was just there to keep Alex company. Emma raised her hand.

"That's an awful lot of money… How are we going to pay for it all?" She asked.

"Fundraising, mainly. Plus the school council is willing to put a bit in, and I'm going to try and organise some sponsors. I just don't want everyone's parents to have to pay for it all. Maybe they could all chip in a little bit, just to help out…" Ellie replied.

"What sort of fundraising?" Toby asked. Paige took this question before Ellie or Marco could get in.

"Well, the Spirit Squad are going to run a car wash in a few weekends time. Plus we're going to organise chocolate drives, a concert, a dress up day with a raffle and a barbeque." Paige had made all the fundraising up on the spot, which was good because Ellie hadn't really gotten her thoughts together about the fundraising, but also annoying because Paige wasn't in charge… Ellie was.

"Thanks Paige. I also want to see if we can get the Dot, Joey's car yard and the place where I did my co-op job to contribute by sponsoring. We've also got the sausages and bread and sauce and that for the barbeque covered because the local supermarket is going to sponsor us on that one."

"So what do we actually do over there?" JT asked. "We don't hafta go to school do we?"

"Yes JT. We have to go to school." Marco said.

Paige rolled her eyes. "What sort of trip did you think this would be JT? A holiday?"

JT made a rude gesture to Paige and Ellie took control.

"Well, we fly to Melbourne, and then we get picked up by our host families. Then we go back to their houses and live with them for 10 weeks, so we do whatever the family we are staying with does. And we go to school with the person we are staying with, so we'll all see one another during the day, because the school we're going to, all the host families children go there." The group nodded in understanding.

"Right well we need to know who is coming by the end of the week, so we can organise the enrolment at the other school and whatnot. Also, if you're coming you'll need to get yourself a valid passport. The info sheet explains it all for you. Also, my numbers on there if you get home and your parents have any questions and want to ask me." The group stood up to leave, and slowly they did, heading off to their various classes, as did Ellie, Paige and Marco.


	2. Going Over

**Chapter Two**

Degrassi 

Marco stood behind a barbeque, turning the sausages every few minutes, but keeping his attention on the stage, because the band was going to be up soon. It was the day of the barbeque, and the exchange trip students had definitely made enough to cover their trip. The Dot sponsored them, giving them $1,500 to put towards their trip. Joey hadn't been able to donate as much, only coming up with $800, but it didn't really matter, as the Spirit Squad car wash alone brought in $2,575, and the chocolate drive, $1,500. The dress-up day had a gold coin donation, and the concert had a gold coin entry fee. Plus they had sold that many sausages Mr. Simpson had to go out and get more. Ellie wandered over to Marco.

"This has turned out really great, hasn't it?" she said to him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Sure has" he replied, giving a 7th grader a sausage in bread. "Wanna take over… I'm gonna be on in a few…" Marco said to Ellie.

"Sure" she replied, taking his apron and the tongs. Marco gave her a quick peck on the cheek before hurrying off to the stage.

A few minutes later Downtown Sasquatch were playing, and they really had the crowd going. Everyone had stopped buying sausages to watch the band. Ellie leaned against the wall behind her as she watched. Emma slid up beside her.

"This has worked out well hasn't it?" she said, watching the band.

"Yeah it has. I'm proud of it. I just hope everything in Australia goes just as well," Ellie said, sighing.

"Here…" Emma said, passing Ellie an envelope. "For once we get into Melbourne." She then walked off. Ellie looked at the envelope and put it into her pocket. _'Strange'_ she thought to herself.

A week later the group were boarding their plane. The group that was going was Ellie, Marco, Paige, JT, Emma, Manny, Toby, Craig, Alex and… Jay. Ellie was surprised when he said he'd go, even more surprised when his parents agreed to let him go, and even more so again when he showed up at the airport. The group boarded and waved goodbye to their families and did all that sort of thing that you do when you're leaving your loved ones behind for weeks on end.

Hours and hours passed and finally the group arrived in Melbourne. They went through customs quickly, and then headed out to find their host families. They walked out together, Manny and Emma linking arms at the front, looking kinda lost, Alex and Jay bringing up the rear, mucking around and making out. Emma soon spotted a sign over near one of the entries saying "Degrassi Exchange Kids". They headed over to the people standing with the sign and huddled together in a group. Marco headed to the front of the group, Ellie looked like she was about to be sick. She didn't want to talk to these strangers all of a sudden.

"Hi, I'm Marco, and this is Ellie. We're the ones that organised this trip…" Marco began to say, before Ellie interrupted him.

"Sorry bout that. Right well…" she began, trailing off.

A girl from the back of the Australian group moved to the front.

"Right. I'm Devon" she said, waving. "I got a list here that says who's going with who…" Devon began to rummage through her bag. Finally she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.

"ok. Ellie, you're with Cara" Devon began, and Cara came forward and smiled at Ellie. "Hey" she said.

"Emma is with Nat" Emma headed over to a girl that waved to her at the side of the Australian group.

"Manny, with Katy. Alex, you're with Steph. Jay, you're with Kyle. JT… Wait is that your name?" Devon went on to say. JT nodded.

"Anyway" Devon said, shaking her head. "You're with Mark. Toby, you're with Simon. Craig, Benny and Marco, with Jake. That's everyone right?"

Everyone had paired off with their matching host family, except Paige.

"What bout me?" she whined. Alex rolled her eyes, and Mark broke off into song.

"What about me. It isn't fair…" Mark's singing was shortly cut off by Kyle and Benny tackling him to the ground.

"Oh... You must be with me." Devon said, going over her list once again. "Oh. There you are, Paige. Well, then. Lets get going."

The group followed their host family member out to the car park where they were picked up by other family members or taxis.


	3. First Day Nerves? Never

Chapter Three Australia 

Manny stood and looked in the mirror in her new "room". Everyone on the exchange had to wear the uniform from the school they were attending. Manny screwed up her nose and played with the skirt. The girls had to wear skirts at this school, unless they wanted to wear the daggiest pants Manny had ever seen. The skirt Manny was wearing was dark navy with a white and maroon check through it. The t-shirt was a maroon polo and the jumper was a woolen v-neck. There was a soft knock on her door. It was Katy.

"Hey. You ready to go?" she asked Manny.

"Uh… one minute" Manny said, quickly brushing her hair and putting on a hat. She then picked up her bag and they walked out of the house together.

"Hey…" Manny said, noticing Katy's clothes. "How come your uniform is different to mine… and you get to wear pants." Manny frowned.

"Oh. Mine is the old uniform," Katy said, smiling. Manny returned the smile, but secretly couldn't wait to get back to being with Emma.

The two girls walked along in silence for a few minutes, before they were joined by a boy, who came running up from behind them.

"Hey Katy. Sorry I'm late, but you'd waited" the boy said, giving Katy a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey. Sorry Brent. But we're gonna be late if you don't start hurrying up" Katy said, smiling at the guy and poking his arm. "Oh, and this is Manny. My exchange student from Canada. Manny, this is Brent."

Manny waved to Brent. "Hey" she said, smiling. Brent and Katy chatted the rest of the way to school and Manny walked along, pretending to be interested in whatever it was they were on about.

Manny, Katy and Brent walked into the school, and Katy and Brent directed Manny over to their group of friends, where Manny was happy to find Emma, JT and Toby sitting around. Katy did the whole introduction thing for the few people that were there and Manny sat and eyed off the guys, to see who she could hook up with. Kyle was fairly good looking, and not too loud or quiet. But Katy then started to talk to him about their group date that they went on on the weekend and Manny realise he was taken. Vince was ok looking but not Manny's type, and he was too busy trying to get it on with Nat. It was then that Marco, Jake, Paige and Devon walked over. Manny eyed off Jake, but noticed Marco was doing the same thing. He didn't give of a feeling of gayness to Manny, but then again, who could tell these days? The bell for their first class then rang, and everyone just sat there. Over came, Ellie and Cara, who had linked their arms looked like they'd become best friends, and Craig and Benny, who were deep in conversation about music. _"Lucky them. Getting someone they actually get along with…"_ Manny thought. Then over walked Jay and Alex, with Toby's host family member, Simon. They'd just been back from having a smoke. Manny smiled at Craig and stood up.

"Well, Em, we'd better get going. Don't wanna be late on our first day."

Emma stood up and joined Manny, and Cara and Ellie walked over.

"Well, I'll come with you's all to go and get your timetables, because I have to get a uniform pass."

"I'll come too," Benny said. So all the exchange students and Benny and Cara headed off to the main office.

Benny and Cara explained to the office ladies about the exchange kids needing their timetables, but their year level coordinator, Mr. Matthews took over, while Cara and Benny went and got their uniform passes – Cara for her jeans, shoes and jacket, and Benny for his shoes and jacket. They met the group outside the office.

"Right well, I have dance first, any of you's got that?" Cara asked.

Paige and Manny nodded, and Mr. Matthews slid past.

"Cara, Benny. Here's a late pass each. Take this lot to their classes would you?" Mr. Matthew said, passing Cara and Benny a note each. Cara and Benny nodded.

"Right… Well, lets head off."

They took everyone to where to meet after class, and then headed off to their classes. First, Toby had IT. Ellie, Alex, and Marco had art. Craig had music, JT maths, Emma had history with Benny, Jay had electronics and Paige and Manny had dance with Cara. Cara and the two girls headed off to the dance room. The teacher, Lia, had hardly even begun the warm-up.

"Sorry I'm late Lia. These are our exchange students by the way, Paige and Manny." Cara said, changing into her jazz runners and then running onto the floor for warm-up.

Lia waved hello to the girls, and then said, "Join in girls."

The class ran through their warm-up and then quickly ran through everyone's solo dances, before starting working on a new dance, a story dance about teenage issues. Lia gave everyone the choreography she had already come up with, for the section about going out and having fun, getting drunk and partying. She had the places already thought out, and so she placed everyone, including Paige and Manny, who would be around at the time of the performance of this dance. Cara was on the opposite side of the stage to Paige and Manny, who noticed that Nat and Steph were also in the dance class, but were in a different area to both Paige and Manny, and Cara. Nat and Steph were with another girl, Cloe, and they were doing the main dancing, in a diagonal line thru the middle. Paige and Manny and the group they were with were dancing together in the back left corner, and Cara traveled from the left back corner with the big group, over to the right front corner, thru the diagonal line, and over to a guy, who was named Adam in the other corner, where she and him began to dance together.

The bell rang about an hour later, and very slowly the class filed out. Paige and Manny stood around waiting for Cara for a few minutes, until Adam told them not to bother, Cara always has to stay beck after class. Paige and Manny looked at one another and shrugged their shoulders, then called out to Cara and said "We'll meet you down there." And off they went.

It didn't take long for Cara to finish talking with Lia, and soon enough she was down with the rest of the group. The whole host family thing had worked out well; all the host family students were friends with one another, so the Degrassi kids could stay together and not have to worry too much about making new friends. As Cara made her way towards the group, Ellie jumped up from where she was sitting and ran over to her new friend, and gave her a big hug, before linking arms with her and together they walked over to the group. Alex and Jay, who were sitting on the outskirts of the group, just watched the group. Well, Alex watched, and Jay tried to feel Alex up. He wasn't getting very far though, as every time he'd try, Alex would push him away and say "Not now Jay." Jay was getting frustrated by Alex's behaviour, and soon he stormed off from Alex and the group.

"Looks like we got another needing damage control" Nat said, smiling at Steph and Brent, who in return just rolled their eyes. "Who's gonna go?" Nat said, pressing on.

Alex shook her head. "Nah. Shouldn't give into him so quickly. It's not like we're even going out…" Alex began to say, but then stopped herself. Cara looked at Alex, but then turned back to the group and joined back in the conversation, while Emma, who was on the other side of the group to Alex, slipped away in the direction of Jay.

"Jay" Emma began to say, before Jay interrupted her.

"Whatcha want Greenpeace?"

"Would you stop calling me Greenpeace? Nobody uses that name anymore…"

"Fine. Whatcha want **_Emma_**" Jay said, putting extra emphasis on the girls name.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Damage control" she said simply, watching Jays face become confused.

"Huh?" he asked.

"I dunno. Something these Melbourne kids were saying bout you walking off."

"Uhuh…" Jay said. "Well, I don't need any damage control... whatever it is."

"Sure." Emma said, sliding down the wall next to where he was standing. Jay slid down with her.

"So how's things" she asked him.

Jay shrugged. "I dunno really." He was bordering on being honest with the girl.

"Well, what do you know about?" Emma asked.

"Well, I know I'm in Australia with a bunch of kids I don't like and right now I'm sitting with the girl I gave an STI to."

"Very funny. How come no-one came to see you off at the airport?"

"They were busy."

"Bad lie Jay. They weren't busy, were they?"

Jay looked at Emma. "It's none of your business why there was no-one there Emma." He was getting angry.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..." Emma started to say, but Jay was already standing up.

"The damage is controlled Em. Let's go back." He offered his hand to Emma, who took it and stood up.

"Why you calling me Em again?" Emma asked, as they walked back. Jay only ever called her Em when they were involved.

"Oh. I dunno…" Jay said, knowing exactly why he called her that.


	4. The Welfare Councilor

**Chapter Four**

_Australia _

The Degrassi kids, Cara, Devon and Benny were sitting in their Pastoral class. The school had just put all the Degrassi students into the smallest Pastoral class the school had, which luckily enough, happened to have host family students in it. Their Pastoral class had to be the biggest waste-of-time class the school had. Cara and Ellie were sitting on the floor in the corner, deep in conversation. Marco and Craig were talking about the band with Paige and Devon. Jay and Alex were on the other side of the room, quietly fighting. Emma, Toby and JT were talking between themselves, Manny was 'resting' her head on the desk and Benny was just sitting there, watching everyone and listening to his music. A few minutes passed and then someone came into the room. It was the school's councilor, Antoinette.

"Can I please speak with Paige and Ellie?" Antoinette asked their teacher, who nodded in reply. The two girls both got up, confused as to where they were going.

They stepped out of the room and headed around the corner, not going to Antoinette's office as Paige expected.

"Ok girls, I'm Antoinette, and I'm the school's councilor. My job is exactly the same as Ms. Sauve's. She rang me earlier. She wanted me to touch base with you, just to check that the move here hasn't been too stressful for either of. Basically I just want you to know that if you feel the need to talk to someone, my door is always open."

Ellie bit her lip, thinking about the whole situation, while Paige looked back around the corner.

"So did Sauve tell you what our problems were? Coz I thought this stuff was all confidential…" Ellie said quietly.

Antoinette shook her head. "No, she just said that you girls used to see her and that I should introduce myself… just so you know who I am should you need to talk."

The girls both nodded. "Ok... thanks" Paige said, turning to leave.

The 3 of them walked back to Pastoral, and this time Antoinette asked to speak to Cara. They left the room and didn't come back, which didn't really bother anyone other than Ellie and Benny. Ellie leant over to Devon.

"So does Cara see that Antoinette lady or something?" she asked her.

"She used to but I didn't think she went anymore" Devon said, not really that concerned with it, more interested in JT, who was clowning around at the front of the room.

"Oi. Ellie" Benny said, calling Ellie over to him.

"What?" the red head asked.

"So you and Cara seem to be good friends…" Benny started to say.

"Yeah. She gets me, which is really strange because I expected to come here and it would be the same as back home… Everyone's in awe of Paige and then forget about the others. Luckily that hasn't happened."

"You talk a lot. You know that?" Benny said to Ellie, shaking his head.

"What's wrong with that?" Ellie asked.

"Nothing" Benny said, picking up his books, getting ready to leave class, as the bell was about to go. He then headed over and got Cara's books for her as well.

The bell rang and slowly the group filed out of class and headed off to their own, different classes.

When the day finally ended, Katy and her boyfriend, Jase, headed of to his house, leaving Manny to either work out her own way home, or to find someone who could take her home. Emma and Nat were going back to Steph's house, along with Alex, so they were out of the question. Toby and JT had gone home with Mark, Jake had to go grocery shopping for Marco was going with him, Kyle had left earlier that day because he had to go to the dentist, which left Ellie and Cara, Simon, Jay, Benny and Craig. They were only a little bit in front of her, so Manny ran to catch up to them.

"Hey. Can I walk with you's?" she asked the group, who looked at one another before Cara said, "Yeah, sure. Where do you hafta go?"

"Katy's" Manny replied.

"How come you're not walking with her?" Simon asked, eyeing Manny up and down.

"She went to Jase's" Ellie said, answering for the girl.

The group walked on in silence for a few more minutes, until Brent joined them.

"Hey, Brent you go past Katy's house to get home don't you?" Cara asked.

Brent nodded.

"Can you take Manny there? It's just its really out of the way for us, and you're going there and all…" Cara said, turning around and walking up closer to the boy.

"Sure Cara. No need for all the begging either… Aaron told me all about that. Plus Steph would kill us both if she saw that" Brent said, grinning.

"I wasn't begging" Cara said, turning back around.

"Sure" Brent said, wrapping his arm around Cara's shoulder.

The group had reached the bus stop, where Simon was going to leave them. They did their goodbyes quickly and continued on. Pretty soon Manny and Brent left also, and so Cara took everyone over to a park near her house where nobody ever went.

"Soo…" Cara said, dropping her bag and sitting down on one of the benches. Benny sat down next to her, and Craig, Jay and Ellie sat on the grass.

"What time do you's hafta be home?" Craig asked everyone.

"When it's dark" Cara replied, and Benny nodded in agreement.

"Got no idea," Jay said. "Kyle never said anything about a curfew."

"Do you even know where you're living?" Cara asked.

Jay shook his head. "Well, what are we gonna get up to?" he then asked.


	5. My Story

**Chapter Five**

The next day was the beginning of teenage issues week at the school, even though it wasn't the start of the week. To start things off, the school was having year level assemblies. The exchange students and their host families were all in year 11, so they had to wait till after recess for their assembly. After recess came and they all went into the Student Rec Centre, only to find out that the boys were going into the gym, and the girls were staying in the Rec Centre.

"It's a bit late for the puberty talk don't you think?" JT said as he headed off to the gym with the other boys. Paige rolled her eyes and Emma giggled. The girls made their way to the back of the Rec Centre, and climbed onto the couches there. Manny, Emma, Nat and Steph on one, Paige, Devon, Katy, Ellie and Alex on another. Just as they were getting comfortable, Ellie noticed that Cara wasn't around. Come to think of it, Ellie hadn't seen Cara since they got to school, when Cara disappeared to go to the bathroom.

"Ok... Welcome girls" Antoinette said at the front of the room. "As you know this week is teenage issues week her at school, and for the rest of today, instead of your classes, you're going to go to workshops with your teachers and you pastoral classes, working on what issues you think are important, what issues you face, and how to deal with those issues. First of all though, we've got a guest speaker and a student from the school to speak to you about their pasts. First I'd like to welcome Indiana to come and talk to you."

Indiana spoke for 10 minutes or so before going into question and answer time, before she introduced the student speaker – Cara.

As Cara took the microphone, she looked out at the sea of faces looking back at her, most of which had heard rumours about her story. She took a deep breath and began.

"Ok. So you all know I'm Cara, and I'm sure you've all heard rumours about me and my past. Some of them are true, some of them partly true and others are just complete bullshit. I'd better start back at the beginning for you all…" Cara drifted off, and she went and got herself a chair to sit on. She was feeling a little dizzy already.

"Right… The start. Back when I was about 10, I started to put on weight. Now I had, still have really, this irrational fear or getting fat. Nobody told me it was normal for me to be putting on weight, and so to counteract the weight, I started to diet. I cut out one meal a day, and I did that for about a year before I realised that it wasn't working… I was still putting on weight. So when I was 12 I cut out a second meal. I was only eating dinner. By the time I got to year 7, and my 13th birthday, I still weighed the same. That's when I stopped eating all together. It was a slow process, occasionally I'd eat a meal, or I'd have a snack or two during the day. I was happy, I had started losing weight. It didn't last that long, my mum started getting suss, and so I started eating normally again. I was officially anorexic for 3 months. Meanwhile, a few guys in my class had taken a liking to me, and because Nat wasn't around for them to get some from during class time, no offence Nat, I was their substitute. I'm not going to say their names… but they felt me up every chance they could for 3 years, even when I said no. But that's not even the main part. In year 8, just after I'd gotten my first boyfriend, something bad happened. I don't talk about it much these days, but for this I will. I was… I was…ra...rap... raped, by a random. I don't know who he was, so don't ask me. I also don't like reliving it, so don't ask me about how it happened or where or what happened either. That's all you need to know, that that's what happened to me. I was ok for a fairly long time, all things considered. I dumped the boyfriend, and the other boys came back to feeling me up. They often tried to go further, but we were in class, there's not much you can get up to there. So about the end of year 9 everything started falling apart. Me and my friends were fighting heaps, my best friend refused to speak to me and someone I thought I might actually be able to trust enough to also become my friend turned around and began telling people my 'thing'. That's what I call it, my 'thing'. You all saw how I stumbled over the word. I can't say it just yet. I don't know whether I ever will be able to say it. Anyway, by the time we came back for year 10, things were a bit better with my friends, and even though I wasn't happy, I put on a front and tried to make myself be happier."

Cara paused to wipe away her tears and she noticed that the guys were already out, and the Benny, Craig, Kyle, Jay, Marco and Jake were waiting for them, with Toby and JT not that far behind. Cara smiled weakly at them and turned away from them to keep speaking.

"By that stage things were really going down hill. I became really depressed, and I started to self-harm. My friends didn't care about me; if I did nothing in class it didn't bother them. My teachers started keeping me back after class; one teacher even asked if I was doing drugs. One afternoon I accidentally let something slip while I was being kept back, and we went thru all sorts of trouble to find a loophole in the Duty-of-Care rule. To this day my parents have no idea what I've been thru. It was decided that it would be best if I spoke to Antoinette, so I did, and gradually I got a little better, until the friendship problems came up again. The depression never really went away I guess, and I began to cut down what I was eating again. My friends picked up on it this time, and were constantly telling me that I was anorexic. I didn't believe them, and I wasn't, I had EDNOS instead. This year I changed friendship groups, and I'm actually a bit happier because of it. I've still got a long way to go, I know that, but I guess I'm getting there…" Cara said, standing up. She placed the microphone down on the chair and walked out of the Rec Centre.


	6. Everything Is Alright… Isn’t it?

Chapter Six – Everything Is Alright… Isn't it? 

When Cara got to Pastoral the rest of the class were already there. It was almost as though they were waiting for her to get there to start their issues work. Their teacher for that day, Mr. Matthews the year level coordinator had split the whiteboard up into 3 sections, Important Issues, Issues We Face, and How To Deal. As Cara opened the classroom door she noticed that everyone's eyes were on her. She knew her face was puffy and red, she knew that she had just spilled her life story to all of the girls in her year, she knew that she had just made a mistake. The class was quiet as she walked in. Devon and Benny were the first to get out of their seats and go over to her, followed closely by Ellie. Devon wrapped Cara into a bear hug.

"You did it sweetie" was all she said, before she let go of the girl. Ellie then wrapped her arms around Cara and hugged her tightly. She didn't say anything; she knew that actions speak louder than words. And what was she supposed to say, she had just found out her host student was similar to her, possibly even worse off. Ellie let go of her and moved out of the way for Benny to hug Cara, who looked confused as to why Benny was up to. He didn't know anything, did he?

"I'm sorry," he said, hugging her. Cara didn't want to let go, but she wanted to know how he knew. Instead, she took his hand and pulled him out of the classroom.

"What do you mean, you're sorry?" She asked him, sitting down on bench.

"Uh… We got let into the end of your speech. Me, Craig, Jay, Kyle, Marco and Jake. Because we are such good friends…" Benny didn't really know what to say. Cara go up of the bench.

"Oh…" was all she said. She wrapped herself up in Benny's arms again. He was one of her best friends, but he had never ever hugged her before. Cara liked it.

Meanwhile, back in class the group was working on the issues work.

"Right, for Important Issues we've got…" Alex began. She was the writer for the work, because it turned out that all the work had to be done on paper so it could be handed in, and not on the board. "Family, Friends, Boyfriends/Girlfriends, Money, Growing up, Freedom, School, Parties, Alcohol, Drugs, Getting Hurt, and Abuse… That's pretty much them all isn't it?" she said.

The group nodded.

"Ok, and Issues We Face we've got eating disorders, self injury, rape, alcohol, drugs, boyfriend/girlfriend problems, schoolwork, family and friendship problems. Is that them all?"

"Pregnancy… Abortion" Manny said quietly. Alex added it to the list, which she then handed to Mr. Matthews. They were going to work on How To Deal after lunch, which was in about 10 minutes. Cara and Benny came back into the room and the group sat together, quiet, for a few minutes. Everyone was thinking about different things. Benny had his arm around Cara, as a protection 'move' more than anything else.

By the time lunch came around the whole school was buzzing with the news that there was a girl in year 11 who was seriously screwed up. As much as their group tried to act normal, they couldn't help but act differently when people whispered and pointed at Cara. Cara was sitting on the bench behind the group, hiding from view. The girls were surrounding her, and then the guys were surrounding them. Kyle and Mark tried to keep the conversation flowing easily, but it just wasn't happening.

"I need to get out…" Cara said softly, speaking for the first time that lunchtime. Devon looked at her and Benny leaned over to her.

"Out where?" he asked.

"Just… away. From all of this" she said slowly, motioning to a group of year 9's walking past, whispering and giggling away.

"Then let's go" Benny said. "We'll go to mine. Mum and Dad are away for the rest of the week and Michael is doing nationals preparations… I've got the house to myself. We'll just kick back, watch some TV and relax."

"Sounds good… But everyone has to come k?" Cara said.

"No probs. But they'll hafta come spread out, not in one big clump."

"Ok"

"Right, well you go get your bag and meet me back down here. You, me, Ellie and Paige will get going first."

Ellie shook her head. "uh… how bout someone else goes before me… say… Emma and Jay or something instead of me n Paige. We'll be the last 2 to leave."

Benny nodded his head. "Sure, whatever. It doesn't really matter anyway."

A few minutes later Cara arrived down at Benny's locker with Jay and Emma in tow. Saying their goodbyes quickly, they headed off to Benny's house.


	7. In The Right Element

**Chapter Seven – In the Right Element**

Benny opened his house up quickly and Cara wandered inside. She'd been here only once before, and that was after an exam. Her and Devon were deathly thirsty, and neither of them had any money to buy a drink. So they had walked to Benny's, let themselves in only to find Benny sitting on the couch, with his brother Michael, playing the PlayStation. Both of them in their pajamas. Cara laughed at the memory, Benny had been so surprised to see them, and acted extremely strange, seeing as they had all been friends for 2 or 3 years, but Michael, who neither Cara nor Devon had met, was the one offering the girls a tour of the house and food and drinks.

"Benny" Jay called out, breaking Cara from her daydream. She noticed she was still standing in the entryway, so she moved into the lounge room and flopped onto the nearest couch, across from Emma.

"I needa piss" Jay said. Benny showed Jay to the toilet and returned to the kitchen, where he was getting food ready for a barbeque.

A few minutes later, Nat, Steph, Jake and Marco showed up and let themselves in. After them, Katy, Devon, Manny and Alex. Then Kyle, JT, Mark, followed by Jason, Brent, Craig and Toby. There was no sign of Paige or Ellie though, which didn't really bother anyone too much, as they were all to busy playing Twister to notice much more than where the nearest coloured spot was. Steph and Nat were proving to be too good for everyone else though, and so Mark decided they should compete against one another to see who would win. Everyone formed a tight circle around them, and their match began.

* * *

Meanwhile, Emma had disappeared from the group, and was off looking at the house. She wasn't really a big fan of Twister anyway. At least, not with that many people playing. Emma found herself in Benny's ensuite. _'Lucky him, he gets his own bathroom that he doesn't have to share with anyone at all'_ Emma thought, thinking about both her bathroom back home at Degrassi, and the one she was sharing with Nat and her family. Emma sat down on the edge of the bath, lost in her own world. A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

"Is anyone in there?" Jay asked.

"Me" Emma replied, shaking her head to clear her thoughts.

The door opened.

"Oh... You're me," Jay said.

"Very funny. What do you want?"

"Hmm… Lots of things. Someone to come with me while I go get us some alcohol would be good"

"I thought I heard Nat say she'd go?" Emma asked.

"She did. I want someone from home to come with me." Jay said, hoping Emma would get the point. The thought of making out in the bathroom really didn't do it for him.

"Sure, why not? As long as we're not walking…" Emma said.

* * *

Back at school, 2 girls sat nervously in the welfare offices waiting room. Ellie and Paige had been sitting in the room since the last group of their friends had left for Benny's. A lady with crazy coloured hair had already walked past them twice, both times offering to talk to them, but they had said that they were waiting for Antoinette. They waited for a few more minutes before Paige got up and started to pace.

"How long is this going to take? I get the feeling that we're missing out on a **_great_** party." Paige said, just as Antoinette's door opened.

"Missing out on a party? It's still only 6th period." Antoinette said, a smile on her face. "I won't say a word," she added, opening the door further to let the young girl who was inside out, and Paige and Ellie.

Once they were settled, Antoinette began. "So, what do I owe the pleasure of this visit to?"

"Um..." Ellie said, looking to Paige, who was too busy reading all the posters Antoinette had up on her walls. "Paige. Maybe you'd like to start?" Antoinette said, bringing Paige back to reality.

Paige took a deep breath and started to talk. "Right, well… um, there were a few things in Cara's speech that uh… kinda hit hard with me n Ellie."

"Do you mind telling me which parts? If not, we can skirt around them as much as possible. Or is that not why you're here at all?" Antoinette asked.

Ellie shook her head. "Its a bit of both." Inwardly, Antoinette smiled. She could see how alike Cara and Ellie were.

"Like, some of the things she said really got underneath my skin. But I'm worried for her. I'm scared that with all her history, reliving it all today was bad enough for her to go that little bit too far," Paige said.

"She wouldn't!" Ellie said, turning to look at Paige.

"I don't know her well enough, but she could. You can never tell" Paige said. Ellie rolled her eyes, and they all sat in silence for a few moments. There was a knock at the door, and Antoinette opened it.

"I'll be with you really soon Melissa."

She turned back to Paige and Ellie.

"Look girls, I've got another girl wanting to speak to me, so I say go to this party of yours. I'm assuming Cara will be there, so just watch out for her. As soon as you see her starting to go downhill, get her sobered up, and don't let her drink anymore. Make sure she's safe, and remember to get all the sharp objects away from her. If things get bad, I'm sure someone will know first aid, and if all else fails call 000, emergency services. Also, here's my number if you feel the need to ring me. Now this is the worst-case scenario. I don't think that this will happen, Cara's got good coping skills, but just in case…"

There was another knock on the door, and Ellie and Paige stood up and took Antoinette's number and then left.

* * *

Emma and Jay walked out of the bottle shop, carrying the assortment of bottles they'd been asked to buy. Why they were drinking this much on a school night Emma couldn't quite work out, but it didn't really matter, she was up for it. Emma put her bottles in the back seat of Benny's car and climbed into the front seat and pulled down the sun visor to look in the mirror. She fiddled with her hair for a few minutes as Jay organised the bottles so the wouldn't fall over and break. Then he climbed into the drivers seat and pulled out of the car park. They drove back towards Benny's house, but Jay pulled off into a park when they were about 5 minutes away from the house.

"This isn't Benny's house Jay" Emma said.

"Way to state the obvious Em," Jay retorted.

"Well, what are we doing here?" she asked, turning to look at Jay.

Jay didn't reply, and instead moved closer to Emma. He looked at her for a moment before he leant in towards her and kissed her lightly on the lips. Emma was shocked by Jay's actions, but returned the kiss gladly.

* * *

Emma and Jay returned half an hour later. They put the alcohol they had brought onto the kitchen bench, and saw that everyone had moved outside to help with the barbeque. Jay tried to pull Emma upstairs, but Emma didn't move.

"We have to talk Jay," she said. They went upstairs and headed to Benny's room, where they found Marco and Jake getting to _know_ one another.

"Haven't you's ever heard of closing the door?" Jay said, kinda grumpy that the spot he had planned for him and Emma had been taken.

"You snooze you lose" Jake said. "Close the door on your way out wont you hun?" he added. Emma pulled Jay out of the room and shut the door behind them. They instead headed back to the bathroom.

"What you wanna talk about?" Jay said.

"You, me, the car… What was that Jay?" Emma said, trying to control the level of her voice.

"You know what it was Em. It was you and me and the good old days"

"The good old days involved you cheating on Alex with me, who just so happens to be on this trip with us, and also you giving me and STD!" Emma sat down on the edge of the bathtub again.

"Look, you know I'm sorry about the STD shit Em. And me and Alex is the past. I want to move onto the future."

"And you think that's with me?" Emma asked, half hopeful, half not.

"I'd like it to be" Jay said, sitting down next to Emma. "Unless you don't want it…"

Emma sat and thought for a moment. She did want Jay, but Jay was Degrassi's bad boy. Emma wasn't sure how they could make things work.

"Look, it's up to you Em. You decide" Jay said, standing up. Emma stood up too. She had made up her mind.

"I've decided," she said, pulling him into a tight embrace. "You" she whispered in his ear, which to Jay didn't really make any sense. All he knew was that she'd chosen to be with him.


	8. just a note

**A/N** – I know I'm not sposed to do this but anyways... before the next entry I wanna give you some basic idea of my pairings so far… Comments on pairings you'd like would be good also.

Cara Benny

Emma Jay

Manny Craig (maybe…… eventually)

Devon JT Nat

Marco Jake

Paige Ellie friendship (nothing more)

Plus the Australian couples who are already together, i.e. Katy Jase, Steph Brent and I think that's it.

And I want someone for Alex as well, but I dunno who yet… **Any ideas?**

* * *

Also here is who's staying with who: 

Ellie – Cara

Emma – Nat

Manny – Katy

Paige – Devon

Alex – Steph

Jay – Kyle

JT – Mark

Toby – Simon

Craig – Benny

Marco – Jake

**

* * *

ALSO I'm terribly sorry if there are storylines missing from this. I'm still catching up to the Canadians and Americans with episodes and that. **


End file.
